Effects of Planktonic Copepods on Transparent Exopolymeric Particles (TEP) Abundance and Size Spectra

Diatoms exude considerable quantities of polymers, mainly polysaccharides,that play an important role in the process of sestonic particleaggregation in the sea. We investigated the impact of copepodson transparent exopolymeric particles (TEP) generated by thediatom Thalassiosira weissflogii. Grazing experiments with ¹⁴C-labelledalgae exudates demonstrated that copepods typical of the BalticSea were not actively filtering TEP. Control experiments showedthat ‘uptake’ of radioactivity could be ascribedto passive uptake, such as adsorption of radioactively-labelledparticles to the body surface. Furthermore, we tested the effectof copepods on TEP size spectra. The abundance and size distributionof TEP (from 1.4 to 180 µm of Equivalent Spherical Diameter)were analysed in a 4 h incubation experiment. In the presenceof copepods, the proportion of larger TEP was higher. An increasein total volume of TEP in jars containing copepods (~2 x 10⁷µm ml^–1) compared with control jars without copepods(~0.5 x 10⁷ µm³ ml^–1) was also observed. The processof aggregation of TEP demonstrated in this work, whereby copepodsincrease downward particle flux without consuming carbon, canhave far-reaching consequences for carbon fluxes along the watercolumn and for copepods feeding dynamics.